What We Are Doing

Written by James Bigila, Media Coordinator, Save the Children in Nigeria

The Presidency through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals (OSSAP-MDGs), inaugurated the 2015 MDGs end-point report in Nigeria last week.

The inauguration of the 2015 MDGs endpoint report was done at the Social Good Summit 2015 with the theme: “New Goal, New Power, New Technology #2030Now”.

Save the Children’s Head of Campaign and Advocacy, Dr. David Olayemi while addressing panelists at a debate on the Social Good Summit 2015, has stressed the importance of children engagement towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr Olayemi said: “"We must make sure that the government engages and involves children in the implementation of the SDGs. We must also make sure that in the implementation of the SDGs, women are carried along. It should be gender inclusive".

“A situation where the government leaves development partners to lead in the implementation of development agenda should be discouraged. The government should be leading in implementing the SDGs," he expressed.

Dr. David Olayemi expressed optimism that with the involvement of children and women, the problems revolving around children and needs of children will be better addressed and solved if children and women are engaged and involved in the implementation process.

Mr Ochapa Ogenyi, Secretary of Programme, OSSAP-MDGs while addressing participants during the launch of the report at the 2015 Social Good Summit in Abuja, said Nigeria had also presented the report to the UN.

Ogenyi said MDGs established measurable and universally-agreed objectives for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. He said the measures were also to prevent deadly but treatable diseases and expand educational opportunities to all children, among other development imperatives.

Nigeria had recorded success on implementing the goals, especially on poverty and hunger reduction as well preventing deadly diseases.

Milenium Development Goals projects impacted on the lives of almost every Nigerian with projects sited in every state of the federation.

Mr. Ogenyi told the stakeholders that Nigeria was the first country to submit its end-point report on MDGs at the UN General Assembly, adding that the county received an award on the report.

He said that Nigeria was ready to implement the SDGs, which focused on economic, social and environment issues. Ogenyi said that Nigeria was six years late in the implementation of MDGs and that the country would not be left behind this time around in implementing SDGs.

Also speaking at the summit, UNDP’s Acting Resident Representative, Mr Opia Kumah, advised the Federal Government to merge political will with human resources to achieve the implementation of the SDGs. Kumah said that there were a lot of lessons that Nigeria could learn from the challenges of implementing the MDGs which would end in December.

“A lot of lessons were learnt during the MDGs era, we must not ignore them. “The challenges the country faced in the last decade and half should be turned into opportunities in coming 15 years. We can learn from our failures and build on our successes.

“Achieving SDGs will not depend on economic growth alone, it will depend of successes on all human development parameters including health, peace and security. “Before us is a mammoth task, but a doable one because it is a task of every Nigerian,’’ he said.

Mrs Nkoyo Toyo, Special Adviser to the Cross River Government on SDGs, commended the Federal Government for merging Budget Office with National Planning Commission. Nkoyo said that the development would enhance the implementation of the SDGs, saying that “budget will support planning for government at all levels to achieve the goals’’.

She advised the Federal Government on effective monitoring of the goals to achieve economic development. The summit was organised by OSSAP-MDGs and Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning in collaboration with the UNDP.

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Save the Children International is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales with company number 3732267 and a charity registered in England and Wales with charity number 1076822. Its registered office is St Vincent House, 30 Orange Street, London, WC2H 7HH.